Operation Portal: Alternate
by MagentaScribe
Summary: In an alternate universe the justice league never existed, superheroes never existed and no one was there to protect the Earth. In a post apocalyptic world the young teen heroes were forced to grow up differently then what we know. They lead a war for the planet with out a hope for survival. The Justice league were sure in for a surprise when they foundd themselves stuck there.
1. Prologue

Prologue.

"Ok, Batman, we're here, what is it?" Black Canary asked with an exasperated sigh. J'onn, Aquaman, Flash, Green Arrow, and Fate nodded.

"I called you all because during watch duty at the tower I detected a large surge of unknown energy." He glared.

Barry spoke up. "Well yeah, then I get why Fate's here, magic and all, but what are the rest of us here for? Space tech is more up Green Lantern's alley."

"I called you all specifically because while scanning, I found traces of Young Justice and Red Arrow's DNA signature. I looked at Mount Justice's security feed around the time of the spike but they were all accounted for. I gathered you all to investigate if someone, or something, is targeting them."

Everyone's backs stiffened and they looked more intently at the door to the old and abandoned antique shop. No one had to wonder why they didn't call Superman. They walked through the door to a large room coated in a thick layer of dust and began looking for anything suspicious.

"Are all history rooms this desolate on the surface world?" Orin asked confused.

"Only the ones that don't make a profit." Barry joked, only to get flicked in the side of the head by Dinah. "I'm not wrong!" Barry defended.

"It may not be as empty as it appears." J'onn spoke plainly. When he had everyone's attention he lifted one hand to his head and the other help out to the room around him. His eyes began to glow.

"You mean there's something alive in hear besides us and the rats?" Ollie asked tense.

"I'm unsure if 'alive' would be a suitable term, but there is a consciousness originating from…" slowly he turned in a circle, stopping when his hand pointed in the direction of a large decaying, wooden wardrobe. "There."

"Uh, anyone else getting major Narnia vibes here?" Barry commented. He was met with blank stares. "Ok then, just me."

"There is most definitely a magical pulse coming from that direction, but I do not believe it is the furniture causing it. Perhaps something behind it though." Fate declared.

Green arrow and Aquaman stepped forwards and roughly pushed it to the side. With the wardrobe gone a solid cement door with five sets of locks could be seen. Batman instantly started working on those. They were easy enough to deal with because most were either passcodes or a regular key lock.

The door slid out of the way with a low crunch. A gust of clean air came out displacing lots of dust. Past the door were many stairs and when Ollie peaked down he saw it went for about 5 stories and there was a faint purple light flickering at the bottom. J'onn lifted his arm and everyone but Dr. Fate who could fly himself, levitated then lowered to the ground, completely ignoring the stairs.

The room at the bottom was small and grey, concrete walls, and no windows or light bulbs. The only source of light was a bizarre multipoint 3D star crystal in the center of the room surrounded by a halo of purple.

Orin looked to Dr. Fate, "Is this the source of the energy?"

"Yes," he answered, "but do not touch it." Ollie jerked his hand back from where it was reaching out towards the object. "The light around the anomaly is not from the crystal itself. It is a force field, step aside and allow me to disperse it."

15 minutes later the field dissipated and as if to a flick of a switch; gravity pulled the star to the ground. Everyone's breath caught in their throats.

"I got it!" Flash shouted, dashing forward and jumping to catch it. Batman quickly found his voice again, "NO! Flash wait!"

Too late.

The object landed gently in Flash's hands. There was a flash of light and they wobbled as their balance was thrown off.

The gasped as the light cleared, and when the heroes looked up, found they were no longer in the basement of the antique shop. In fact, they had no idea where they were. It was obvious they stood in what used to be a street but the buildings around them were nothing but rubble. With no street sign in sight; they were as good as lost. The Flash glanced down and yelped when he noticed the star was no longer in his hands. Another odd thing to notice was the sky seemed to be a dark red and the air was thick and hard to breath.

"Zatara!"


	2. New World

Chapter 1. New world

"Zatara!" Black Canary shouted. The others quickly turned to where she was staring and were just as shocked. There, kneeling on the ground, gasping for breath, was indeed Zatara. Batman bent down next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder; a surprisingly gentle gesture from the dark knight, but his voice was still just as gruff and demanding.

"How are you here?"

Zatara gazed around with wide eyes until he met batman's look. He then shook his head to clear his thoughts before answering.

"I am… unsure. It is as if the helmet was ripped away from me… Where are we?" he said shakily, not used to being able to control his actions and words.

Batman's eyes squinted, recognizing that the Italian was hiding something. He seemed much more worried than confused as the rest of them felt. Perhaps while still in the mindset of Nabu he knew what was happening. He had a theory as to how they were there but wouldn't voice it at this moment. Batman would have pushed in any other case but right now they were in a foreign area with no idea how they got there or what dangers there could be. Best to save the explanations for when they were sure they were in a safe area.

"Not sure, but it looks like a dump." Flash quipped.

In response Dinah flicked him once again- this time harder. "We wouldn't be in this 'dump' if you didn't touch that stupid star!"

Affronted, Flash grumbles, "How do we know it was me? For all we know something happened to Fate" he gestured to Zatara. "Completely unrelated to us-"

"Enough! We may quarrel later, but now we must search for a way out of these ruins, or at least other beings to tell us where we are." Orin declared. They all turned to J'onn, who, taking a deep breath, closed his eyes. After a beat of silence J'onn spoke.

"There are beings atop that building, there." He pointed to what used to be an apartment complex a few 'houses' down. "I am unable to hear their thoughts however; something seems to be blocking me."

They looked to the structure, wondering if they were being watched at that very moment, and if so, with what purpose?

Dinah whispered in the silence. "We would see clearer if we had some light. Or would that be giving away our position?"

"We are already in clear view." Zatara raised his hand, palm up, and a small orb of light flickered into existence. Turning back to the building they noticed two forms jumping structure to structure… coming straight for them!

"Brace yourself!" Batman ordered. The beings, assumedly people, considering the form and skin coloring, came down on them. The taller of the two nearly took out Zatara with a kick with a thick boot. Fortunately, the magician pulled up a sky blue shield that took the blunt of the attack instead. They were given clear view of the attacker when he jumped of the shield and landed in a crouch. He was obviously male, and was covered in a black skin tight suit laced with Kevlar. Around his waist was a red and grey utility belt, and over his heart was an 'x' the color of blood. The same x was over the left eye of the skull mask he wore to cover his face.

"Hey! What's the big idea?" Flash hollered. The attacker tilted his head and only Batman noticed the tiny nod to no one. Then it hit him; there were two people on the roof.

The second assailant swept past them from behind, slicing the bow string of the bow Ollie was holding, with duel blades. She was clearly a female if her proportions had any bearing. She too was dressed in a skin tight black Kevlar suit, but this time with a purple 'x' over her sternum. But unlike her comrade, her face wasn't covered. She was pale with blue eyes and pixie cut blond hair with a thick layer of dirt and dust in it. On her face were three purple stripes going from her jaw line, over her nose, and down the other side.

Ollie tried to raise a response out of them in typical Green Arrow fashion; annoying the bad guys. He shouted "You can't just cut the string on my bow! That's all kinds of unfair!"

"Put out the light." The male said. His voice was monotonous and robotic but there seemed to be a hint of snarky, cocky humor.

"Why should we do that? Personally, I prefer to see the person who is attacking me." Flash said smugly.

"I assumed you'd like a warning," the male stated, standing from his crouch but still tense for a fight. "If you keep using powers you'll most certainly end up dead." The thin air seemed to get colder.

The female had enough. She huffed and turned to skull face, never lowering her swords which were raised to point in the general direction of the heroes' necks. "X, we don't have time for this. We need to leave before any Zites get wise and sense these idiots."

Black Canary gasped in horror at the sound of their voices, whispering "You can hardly be over your pre-teens."

"Yeah? What of it?!" the girl shot back. She then pulled up a holographic wrist computer, not unlike the one Robin wore. "They'll be here any second X. We should kill these psychos before we land ourselves into a blood bath."

"Who are you?" J'onn interrupted. "Why is it I am unable to read your minds?"

The pair froze and stared at the Martian until the girl asked hesitantly "X?"

"I know," the male; 'X' replied. "For god's sake put out that light!" he hissed at Zatara who obeyed. X continued on speaking to the girl, "We can't just leave them here and even if we kill them, the Zites will just reanimate them along with whatever powers they have. How much time do we have?" The air seemed to be thinner all of a sudden and tense, nervous energy could all but be seen passing between the two black clad people.

"None." For a painstakingly long second no one breathed. No one dared to make a sound even the leaguers though they had no idea how much was at stake if anything knew they were there.

A shot rang out. At the same moment the girl did a twirl that flung her into the air at a vertical spin. She extended her arm and something flew out of her hand towards what used to be an alleyway.

The heroes whipped their heads around fast enough to see a razor sharp pointed throwing star impale itself into the neck of a middle aged, brunette woman in skinny jeans. They watched in horror as the lady twitched with blood gushing out her throat and down her body.

The shocked silence shattered like broken glass. Batman lunged forward and grabbed her by her shirt, lifting her up. "What the hell is wrong with you?! You just murdered a civilian!" Her face scrunched up in pain then cleared to blank again.

X jumped to kick Batman's legs out from under him. His feet caught on the inside of Batman's elbow, making him drop the girl. Before he could summersault off though, Batman grabbed his ankle and yanked. The Dark Knight threw a punch but X bent backwards and rolled away. X swung his leg around and Batman jumped and flung his foot to hit him in the stomach. The blow landed yet, gasping in pain, X locked his arms around the leg and spun, throwing Batman at a wall that was still standing. As he was flying through the air Batman hooked his fingers around the edges of the skull face plate.

Hitting the wall knocked the breath out of Batman, and when his head cleared a second later he came to realize that X's mask was held tightly in his hand. He looked up and froze. Staring back at him with glaring blue eyes, was his son; Dick Grayson. His pride and joy: the boy whom he had raised since the tender age of 7. The darling child whom he helped through nightmares, whom he'd watched steal Alfred's cookies using his acrobatics, whom he couldn't get to stop smiling; he was suddenly so different.

He was still 5 foot nothing and lean for a 13 year old. His hair, like the girl's, was dirty, and there were even more cuts on his face than normal, including a light pink scar crisscrossing over his left eye (most likely barely managing to avoid being blinded). But most surprising was that there was no smile in sight, in fact he even had frown lines! His eyes were cold and hard. Where had the most important person in his world's light gone?

"Robin?" Black Canary whispered. He stared back at all of them, not a hint of recognition in his eyes.

"I definitely have a theory." Zatara muttered.

_line break/end of chapter_

Please leave a comment to let me know what you think

Love- MagentaScribe


	3. Zites

Chapter 3. Zites

"X?"

Robin turned his neck so fast it cracked. The shell shocked leaguers followed his line of sight. The girl's legs were bent slightly and she hand her hand on the wall for support. Why she should need support was unclear, until the blood began to drip from her abdomen, like the tears of death, leaking away with her life. When glancing back at the civilian, they saw some kind of energy gun in her hand.

"Duel!" Robin shouted in fear and rushed to her side.

"Damn Zite got a shot at me." she grunted and stumbled into his arms. "There'll be more coming. That one was just- ugh- a scout."

"Yeah, I know, but you're in no condition to fight. You need to get out of here."

"What?! No! There are almost 20 Zites coming, and I can't just leave you here with these weirdoes!" she protested.

"It was an order, solider." Robin grabbed the swords out of her hands and replaced it with small jewel he pulled out of one of the pockets on his belt. "Mind if I borrow these? I _promise_ I'll bring them back."

The heroes felt as if they were intruding on an intimate moment. All except Batman that is, who still stared in horror at his prodigy.

The girl held up the jewel to her mouth and blew on it gently. Out of the gem came dust that circles around her. When it cleared she was gone.

Robin took a deep breath and, stone faced once again, turned to look at them.

"Ok. Here's the deal. In the next minute or so about 20 creatures will be showing up. Apparently you freaks have issues with killing 'civilians' whatever that means. But let me assure you that they aren't people, and they will not hesitate to kill you." he twirled the swords in his hands and gripped the handles in a ready position with the blades pointing out on either side. "I have no desire to protect your lives, as you have endangered my comrade. Still, I have no intention of abandoning seven supers to be captured. So I suggest you either follow me or decapitate yourselves with these here swords I'm holding.

After his quick speech, Robin looked expectantly at them. No one answered for what seemed to be a long time. The silence was only deterred by a sudden clanging noise a block down.

"We'll go with you."

"Wha- but Batman, we can't just-"

"I said, 'we'll go with him', Black Canary." He gave them all a meaningful look and they understood; they need to follow Robin and find out what was going on.

"Great. Start heading that way. And quickly." He pointed his sword in the opposite direction of where the noise came from. They began walking briskly but didn't get very far before someone shouted out from behind them.

"Hey! Who are you?"

They all spun around. A little girl no older than the age of six was staring at them with wide blue eyes and was hugging a teddy bear to her. Robin pulled out a gun.

"NO!" Batman pushed his son's arm down, but the shot still rang out: deafening.

"Shit, I missed." Robin muttered.

"Dude it was just a little girl! She was probably scared and needed our help." Flash hollered.

"Shush! Keep your voices down, you bleeding hearts. Before you go off and incriminate me, how about you take another look? Your associate, 'Clad in Black' over here made me miss." Robin hissed in anger through his teeth.

They looked again. The girl was getting up! There was blood pooling from the bullet wound in the center of her chest. The stuffed bear dropped limply from her hand.

"That wasn't very nice." She said her voice half way between a sing-song, and gargling marbles. Her body began to morph. The cracking of her bones as they restructured was heard from all the way across the many yards between them. Bulges started growing from her sides and back, ripping her clothes in the process. Her neck stretched out and she opened her mouth. Teeth extended and sharpened, causing her jaw to open even more.

By the time she was done the only recognizable part of her was her cropped red hair. She had six legs, similar to an insect. A scorpion tail was in the center of her back, dripping a sickly green substance. The skin was grey and stretched over the seven foot creature, cracking around the edges of its mouth that was sporting teeth the size of a shark's. It glanced down at its chest and they saw the bullet wound closing up and spitting out the bullet. It smiled and two slits at its throat on either side started vibrating.

"Shit! Now you've done it! RUN!" Robin ordered. They all turned and fled. A growl was heard behind them. The creature lunged at Robin and he reacted and swung his sword accordingly. But the monster moved at the last second so Robin cut off one of its legs instead of its head. Robin kicked it back without noticing that the leg was still moving.

Batman did notice however when the limb started growing. Within seconds it grew into another creature and began heading toward Robin.

Robin was dancing with the original monster; a back and forth of slashing and dodging. Robin was oblivious.

"Robin!" Batman shouted. No reaction. "Robin… Richard… Dick!" nothing, he just kept on fighting.

"X, behind you!" J'onn spoke in his loud monotone.

Robin cut off the head of the duplicate that snuck up behind him, but the stinger pierced his arm none the less. He grunted in pain and his left arm went limp. With his last ounce of control he tossed the sword in that hand into the sheath on his back and continued fighting with his right. The what-used-to-be a girl went to bite him but he pushed the end of the sword into its mouth.

The monster collapsed but remained alive. Robin stomped on its neck and the being stopped breathing. Batman and the rest of the league were surprised to see that the creatures didn't revive or separate into new life forms.

"We need to get out of here. You people are clearly worth shit in a fight and I can't take on 20 more Zites on my own while at the same time protecting your sorry asses." Robin seethed.

Batman couldn't have that. He needed Robin to trust him, respect him… look up to him. He needed to understand why Robin didn't react to his name. He saw a young man running around the corner, carrying a gun. Praying that he was right in choosing to side with Robin, he threw a batarang. It hit the man in the head, making him fall on his back. Robin instinctively slit the man's throat.

"What do you want us to do R- X?" Batman said, internally cringing at both the act of violence and the forced removal of his son's chosen persona.

More scuffling came from down the alley. Robin gave them a suspicious glance.

"Head to the building you saw us come from. Get on the roof. There'll be two slabs of rock that form a cross. Tap the center of it 3 times, pause for 5 seconds the tap 6 times. A girl will appear, tell her code W.S.G.D., level blue."

"If you see the Starbucks you've gone too far." Flash continued seriously but after a quick look of the faces around him he backtracked. "Not the time? Got it."

Robin sighed and rolled his eyes, muttering something that sounded a lot like 'idiots' under his breath. He put his other sword in his sheath and pulled a syringe out of one of his utility pockets. He plunged it into his lifeless appendage and emptied they contents into his arm. Slowly he drew out the needle. His arm twitched and he stretched it until it popped. He dropped the syringe to the ground and pulled out his swords. Getting into a battle position he crushed the vial under foot.

"I'll handle this and convene with you later. Do not make me regret placing this little trust in your hands." He threatened.

Before they could respond more creatures raced out of the darkness, half of them in human form and toting machine guns. Robin sprinted forward to meet them.

Batman looked back to his comrades, holding eye contact with all of them. They understood the plan and nodded.

Green Arrow and Black Canary turned and ran as fast as they could to where 'X' told them to go. Green Arrow was unable to properly help in any conflict of that magnitude without his bow, but Canary was used to having to watch his back and would be able to cover him for as long as it took to get to the roof. The rest charged to help their little bird, who even in this bizarre form was still a boy they thought of as family.

The next few minutes were a blur of jumbled fighting. Batman stayed glued to 'X''s side, refusing to let his son out of his sight. Eventually they fell into a rhythm where it seemed that they were the dynamic duo once more; they were so in sync. Batman would beat back the opponent to where robin had the opportune chance to finish it off. During one of these iterations Robin faced Batman with a confused but certainly softer look. The vigilante returned it with a comforting smile.

Their moment didn't last long however. The leaguers were refusing to outright kill anything so the monstrosities were multiplying faster than Robin was killing them.

The street was a storm of fighting. So confused in the carnage no one noticed one of the creatures creep off after Black Canary and Green Arrow.

_End of chapter_

i don't care what spell check says; Snuck _**is**_ a word!

love, MagentaScribe


	4. Password

Chapter 4. Password

"I really hope we're helping the good guys right now." Green Arrow whispered to Black Canary as they quietly ran through the rubble. "Cause if we were helping the bad guys then that would seriously suck, and put a black card on my record as a hero. You know?"

"It's Robin" she replied; lost in thought.

"Yeah, I get that. But the Robin we know wouldn't wear a skull mask or carry guns and swords. I mean, he shot a little girl, Canary!"

"Who then turned into a deadly mutant that tried to kill him." She said glancing back at him. There was a road block of broken down cars in their way but they promptly vaulted over it.

"He was totally prepared to kill us, Dinah. The only reason he didn't was because it would inconvenient him somehow. I don't even really get why he's working with us right now!"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." She explained.

"But that doesn't instantly mean that Robin is the good guy of this situation. The Robin we know is a true blood hero, but this isn't Robin; it's 'X', or whatever his name was! I'm just saying that I think we somehow landed ourselves into the middle of a war and picked a side before we had any knowledge of what's going on." He finished somberly.

"You're right but the seeds have been sowed already and we won't have a chance reap them, let alone question our choice of planting location, until we're somewhere safe and quiet enough to think."

The continued on for a few moments of silence before they reached the building.

"To be honest I'm a bit surprised to hear this all coming from you, Arrow." Canary said with a quirked eye brow.

Green Arrow just shrugged. "What can I say? I may not take many things seriously, but I do care about those kids, no matter how shitty of a 'mentor' I am. But we can't help them get back to normal if we have no idea what's going on."

"In that case, we should hurry." Canary snarked, pointing her hand to Green Arrow's legs which were moving at barely a slow jog.

"Oh shit! Sorry! I can't think and run at the same time." He joked.

Canary just rolled her eyes with a smile. "You remember the sequence right?"

"Uh, yeah? Tap 3 times, pause for 5 seconds the tap 6 times, code W.S.G.D., level blue. Right?"

"Just had to make sure. Well, here's the place. Start heading up, I'll cover you."

"You sure Canary? You could go first and I could follow. You know;" he eyed her up and down. "enjoying the view."

She scoffed. "Don't even try that you-" she stopped dead in her tracks.

"Canary? You ok?"

"DUCK!" In a sudden dash, she grabbed a handful of his shirt and pulled the both down.

Over their heads leaped one of the creatures. It landed in a spin but caught traction on the ground with its claws. Their only warning was a growl as it began barreling toward them.

"Well, fuck." Green Arrow said under his breath.

"Get to the roof! I'll stall!"

"Right." Ollie set to scaling the collapsed building, trying to tune out the canary cry and other noises from down below.

When he reached the top he glanced down to the ground. Canary was shrieking at the creature but it didn't seem to have any effect. The being continued to slowly gain ground until eventually one of its arms shot out; grabbed Dinah's face and threw her at the concrete.

Ollie took a quick intake of breath and vaulted over the top ledge of the building. There in the center was a piece of rock carved to look like an X, just as 'X' said.

He jumped to it and hit the center 3 times.

1) The creature launched to the top of the building, grabbed Green Arrow's leg and tried to throw him over the roof.

2) Ollie grabbed an arrow out of his still full quiver and pulled himself back up.

3) He stabbed the creature in one of its eyes and ran back to the rock

4) The arrow exploded, throwing the creature off the structure and green arrow further away from his destination

5) He stumbled to his feet and sprinted back to the cross.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 taps.

Green Arrow was blinded by light.

Green Arrow blinked the light out of his eyes. When they were clear he gawked at the figure before him.

"What's the password?!" she said happily.

"Zatanna?" Ollie made out past his shock.

"Nope! That's most certainly not it!" she snickered and lifted her hand. Without another word or spell passing her lips her hand began to glow. The pieces of rock and rubble surrounding them levitated into the air. The objects were molded into a razor sharp point and held aloft in Green Arrow's direction; a clear threat. "Try again." She spoke menacingly. One spire pricked against the back of his neck.

"Whoa, whoa whoa! Whoa. Hold off with the trigger happy tendencies! It's me, Zatanna; Green Arrow!"

he looked unamused. The spike dug in deeper.

"Okay, okay! Chill out! Robi- 'X' said to tell you code W.S.G.D., level blue! Please don't hurt me!" he begged.

Zatanna's whole body relaxed. She waved her hand and the threatening objects returned to where they were; as if never having been touched in the first place.

Zatanna was- unsurprisingly- dressed in a black cat suit, but this time the X was on her forehead, silver in color; shining like a third eye. She had a rounded black cape trimmed with silver the connected to rings of silver around her wrists and again at her shoulders. Her hair was loose, wavy, and much cleaner than the other two people they've met since suddenly appearing in this strange place.

"Well, why didn't you just say so?" she giggled. She strutted past him and stepped to balance on the ledge. "Oops! It's not dead. My bad." A ball of fire ignited in her cupped hand and she hurled it so fast at the beast it became a laser. "The blond a friend of yours?"

"What?" Green Arrow asked before his brain caught up with him a second later. "CANARY!" he ran to the edge. The portion of the roof he was standing on cracked and collapsed. He would have fallen too if a purple glowing platform didn't appear for him to land on.

"Relax, before you get yourself killed, Guy." Zatanna mocked, jumping off the building to land in a crouch next to the scorched monster.

"How come you don't need to say anything to preform your magic?" Green Arrow asked as the platform was slowly lowered to ground level.

Zatanna scoffed as if he just insulted her. "What do I look like to you?" she demanded. "Some sort of novice? It's been long since I've needed to actually chant a spell to cast it."

"Um, sorry?"

As soon as the platform was low enough Ollie shot off like a bullet to kneel by Dinah's side. He checked her pulse. It was steady, and her breathing was deep and even, so she was fine, just unconscious.

"Step back, Green Bean, so I can send Blondie to the infirmary."

Ollie held Dinah closer to his person.

Zatanna smiled comfortingly at him. "Don't worry; she'll be taken good care of. Trust me." she said her eyes imploring.

He, shakily, stepped back. Zatanna pulled out another one of those jewels and blew on it, but this time the dust swirled around and took Black Canary.

"What was that thing?" Ollie finally asked.

"Which thing? The gem or the monster that almost tore you limb from limb?"

"I think the monster is the more pressing issue?" he said gesturing towards the creature.

"That, my dear Guy, is a Zite."

"Zite?"

"Short for Zitemal. A species of shape shifting bug aliens from some far off galaxy or whatever."

Green Arrow frowned. "What are they doing here?"

Zatanna simply shrugged. "Beats me, but they've been here for a long while, at least a few generations." She sighed and looked around, stopping when she faced the direction they came from.

"Is that fighting I hear?" she asked.

"Probably. My team and that 'X' kid were fighting were dealing with a lot of those 'Zite' things to buy us enough time to get to you.

She hummed in response. "Well come on Guy, let's go find X and your team. Then we can meet back up with your female companion. She held out her hand to him.

He took it and felt a pulling sensation as the world swirled out of focus.

_Line Break_ end of chapter

sorry guys. i don't know what when wrong but i think i fixed it

please leave a review and don't forget to favorite

love-MagentaScribe


	5. Cave

Chapter 5. Cave

In one word, they were screwed.

The battle was most definitely not in the heroes favor. What used to be 20 Zites was now 44, and Aquaman was out cold. Zatara hovered over him, holding a shield up to protect them both.

Robin launched into the air, expecting to kick a Zite on his way down. But suddenly, against all probability, he froze in mid-air.

"X,X,X…" Zatanna ticked. "Are you able to be outside the cave for more than 5 minutes, without getting yourself into some life threatening situation?" Everyone turned up to see Zatanna and Green Arrow standing on a platform of purple light above the fight.

"In my defense," he replied with a chuckle, relaxing in his position in air. "Everything was fine until 7 strange people appeared out of no where."

"No one likes excuses, X."

"Yeah? Well, either set me down or help me take care of these Zites, then you can scold me for my lackadaisical approach at handling problems."

Zatanna giggled. "Sounds like a plan, Red."

Robin fell into a free fall from his place in the air, yet rolled onto the ground without a scratch. Zatanna held up her hand-palm up- and in it formed a blue ball of light. The energy shot off in what seemed to be random directions until it went around the league and struck, point blank, in the creatures' throats.

Robin glanced around, appraising the numerous dead bodies. "Next time let's start with that." he said dryly.

"But if we do that, there will be no fun for anyone else." She stepped down onto a platform that appeared under her foot and continued as if on a disappearing staircase.

"Zatanna?" Zatara said, gobsmacked.

She flipped her hair out of her face and rolled her eyes. "Why is everyone saying that when they see me?" she asked aloud.

Zatara raised his arms to embrace her, but Zatanna simply ducked under and walked toward Robin. In a flash of movement she was suddenly within Robin's arms, hugging each other tightly. This of course made Zatara extremely confused and upset.

"Wha-?"

He was cut off as Zatanna, with lightning speed, pulled back and flicked Robin in the head.

"Ow! What the hell, Majeik? That hurt!" he complained.

"That was the idea, idiot!" she exclaimed. "Though it's not going to hurt nearly as much as your arm is going to feel after that dose of adrenaline burns out. Oh, and by the way, your arm is bleeding and turning green. You might want to get that checked."

The arm that was pierced by the stinger had a ripped sleeve: clearly showing the skin underneath that had taken on a greenish hue and had a steady trickle of blood coming from the wound.

"Wow! Look at that! I guess we should get going then, huh Majeik?" he laughed stiff and breathily.

She glared at him and gulped.

"Ok, fine! I'm sorry I worried you!"

She raised an eyebrow.

"Just take us back to the cave okay?" he grumbled.

"Whatever" she rolled her eyes. In the next second she had snapped her fingers and turned towards the league, a giant smile on her face. "Are we taking these people too?"

"Are you bipolar or something?" Flash asked staring at her with wide eyes. "Cause you're going through emotions faster than I go through food… and that's fast!"

Zatanna and Robin stared at him blankly before Robin deadpanned "Yes."

Zatanna blinked down at him, since she was slightly taller. "Wait, did you say 'yes' to his question or mine?"

"Yes" he replied. "To both. Now let's go before any more Zites show up."

"Was I just insulted?" Zatanna asked innocently.

"Yes, you were. Now let's go!" Robin said impatiently.

After a second of pause she shrugged and skipped to stand in the center of the group of people around her. She levitated herself a few feet in the air and crossed her legs. He hands moved to her forehead and made odd tangled figures and she closed her eyes. Winds started swirling around the heroes, though not moving a hair on their heads; as if they stood in the eye of the storm.

In one quick motion, Zatanna threw her arms out to the sides to form a straight line.

A funnel of light surrounded them. The air vacuumed out and the adults gasped for air. Orin having woken up a few seconds after the battle ended.

Then, as quickly as it appeared, it vanished as Zatanna opened her now glowing eyes.

They no longer stood in the middle of the street, but inside what seemed to be a cave. Zatanna jumped down from her floating vigil.

"Well, now that we have that covered," she spun around, a glowing scythe flashing into existence in her hands, and held it to Batman's throat.

"Shit!" Green Arrow swore. "Trigger happy tendencies, i'm tellin' you; drop 'em!" he said, stress getting in the way of his words.

Almost 30 other kids with varying ages between 8 and 16, came out from behind the jagged rocks around them. They too pointed their respective weapons at them. "Who are you? And how and why the hell are you here?!"

The heroes raised their arms above their heads, and kept calm faces (except for Barry who was mouthing 'bipolar' to a wide eyes Ollie.) There were jumpy children holding deadly weapons, in a strange new world it was best to tread carefully.

J'onn was the one to respond, hoping his steady baritone would settle them. "This here is Batman, the Flash, Green Arrow, Aquaman, Dr- Zatara, and I am Martian Manhunter."

At the last name, a murmur passed around the crowd. J'onn looked at them confused before continuing on. "I assure you that we mean you no harm. We are unaware of how we have come to be here, but we hope that you will assist us in discovering the answer."

"Bullshit!" said a voice from the crowd.

the leaguers looked to the side and saw Rocket. She was leaning against a stalagmite with her arms crossed. Next to her was a girl with pink hair styled like devil horns.

"Yeah," the pink haired girl said. "you can't just not know how you got here! We heard him" she pointed to Zatara. "say that he had a 'theory'. Well? Tell us your idea before we skewer you against the wall." Her eyes and hands glowed pink as she spun a throwing knife between her fingers. she went to take a step forward.

Before she got far, a figure landed in front of her. The person stood up to the girls height, and the leaguers realized that is was the girl from earlier; Duel. The top of her outfit was gone and in its place were bandages wrapping all around her chest and stomach.

"Maybe if you shut up and step aside, then Majeik can do her job and we can figure this all out." she seethed. She looked around, everyone was silent with their heads bowed. "Don't you all have work to do? Scat! Someone call the heads of office and tell them to meet in the conference hall." she commanded. They all scurried off in a hurry back to their stations.

Pink stayed. She glared at Duel and opened her mouth to make a comment. Duel beat her to the punch.

"Perhaps you should keep your mouth shut before you make an even bigger fool of yourself. You can have all the power in the world, but you don't have nearly enough actual maturity to take up mage and you acting like you already have, is only gonna get you in more trouble. You're already on probation, Jinx, we don't need any more insubordination from you."

Jinx flinched back as if struck. She turned tail and ran away.

Zatanna sighed and turned to face the heroes.

Over the course of the confrontation, the people involved forgot about Robin, who leaned against the wall, hidden in the darkness, focusing on breathing. They could no longer ignore him anymore because at that moment he collapsed.

"Robin!"

"X!"

Batman caught Robin before he got hurt and clutched him to his chest. Robin's arm was now purple, and his breathing was short and shallow.

"Dammit! I knew i forgot something… Quick, Duel, run him up to the infirmary!" Zatanna ordered.

Duel stepped forward to take Robin into her arms.

"I'm coming with you." Batman stated. Tightening his hold on his son he stood up and faced the two girls, daring them to challenge him.

Zatanna scoffed and threw her hands up in the air. "Forget it! Let's all just get to the conference hall and I'll heal him there! Gosh! Everyone is so uncooperative today!" She spun on her heel and walked quickly around a corner. The others soon followed.

_End of Chapter_

i'm sorry for the long wait but finals are starting up and I've just been swamped. also the laptop I've been working on got a virus and then the second that got fixed there was a huge storm. all my buddies from the Austin, Texas area will know what i mean. so yeah, during that storm a tree was struck by lightning and fell on my house taking power and internet with it. but it's finally here. I'm looking for someone to be my beta since all of these chapters are completely unedited.  
i will not be updating this story until school ends because i have enough stress without having to remember to do this, no offense to you guys. so school ends on June 5 and on June 6-7 i have a sleep over at my best friend's house. so the second week of June chapter 6 with come out. sorry


	6. Distractions

Chapter 6. Distractions

The cave they were in was a tall yet narrow linking of underground tunnels and caverns. The ceiling was made of jagged crystals that reflected any source of light, illuminating the entire place. The walls however were smooth and had marks down the sides showing showing that it was naturally formed from flowing water. Every few yards a torch was held to the walls helping in lighting the path. Generally, it looked beautiful and was easy to navigate save for the odd pillar or stalagmite in the way. But what caused Batman to worry- besides his unconscious son in his arms- was how no matter where he looked, the walls glistened with dew. This hide out, obviously a home to hundreds of children, was in the middle of a large mass of water. Who knew how long it would take before the very structure-

"Beetle." Zatanna called out. A tall, skinny, Hispanic boy walking ahead of them paused and turned to her. "Come to the conference hall, we have some things to discuss."

Beetle bit the inside of his cheek and his eyes quickly flickered over them. "Um, sure thing." he nodded. "Just me or…" he trailed off.

"Bring all you have on Flashlight and the women in the infirmary with you. Got it?"

"There's a woman in the infirmary? How did that happen, sir?" he asked with confused wide eyes.

Zatanna blinked at him as if he said a joke without a punchline. Deciding that he wasn't joking she went through a series of emotions before landing on concerned. "Did you turn off your link?"

"Oh, of course not, i just get distracted...with work and whatnot." he said standing up straight. His face was a perfect description of a child knowing he did something wrong and knowing that he was already caught, but still trying to feign innocence.

Zatanna glared at him and took a deep breath. "Just do what i said." At his relieved look she snapped at him. "But you will be hearing from Red X about this later."

"Yes, sir, Majeik, sorry sir. 10 min-"

"5 minutes." she interrupted.

Beetle nodded quickly. "Of course, sir." and off he ran down a split off of the corridor.

"Who was he?" J'onn asked.

"Oh, that was just Blue Beetle. Our local techy."

"What's flash-" Zatara started.

"Flashlight? You'll learn about that in a few minutes. God, you people are so impatient. Are all adults like this?" she said turning look at them but continuing to walk: backwards.

"What do you mean?" Orin demanded. "Are there not-"

"Looky! We're here!" Zatanna sung listlessly. She held out her hand and gold light flew from her fingers and into Robin's arm. The light continued to stay in his arm even after Zatanna walked away over to a round table in the center of the hall. she hopped to sit on the edge of the table, leaning over with her hands on her crossed legs.

Flash glanced back and forth between Robin and Zatanna before commenting "How come you don't let people finish their-"

"Sentences?" she said with a wide smile. "I don't know, it's just a habit of mine when i get a tad bit anxious. If you ask anyone around here, as long as i'm not in the room, they'll tell you all about how much they hate that about me."

"Why the fuck are you bickering! Or you not even concerned about him!" Ollie shouted gesturing to Robin.

"No, i'm not." Zatanna replied. "He's been hurt worse, and there's nothing except death that i can't heal if i get to it in time. Don't worry, he'll be fine." she finished smiling gently in Batman's direction. He tilted his head in acceptance.

They all stood in a moment of awkward silence until Duel walked into the hall. "Is he awake yet?" she asked Zatanna.

"No, but he will be any minute now."

"Bumblebee and Vox are on their way, but Static is still over in area 16 prepping for relocation, and i couldn't find Blue." Duel said with a flat face and stern voice.

"Don't worry about Blue, i ran into him on the way here and told him to bring Blondie and what he has on project Flashlight." was Zatanna's reply.

Duel's eyes widened and she looked over the league with a closer and more hostile inspection. "You think that's what caused this?"

Zatanna hmmed. "Perhaps, better safe than sorry."

"Um we are still here you know?" Ollie blurted out, growing more and more frustrated with the girls' vagueness.

"And?" Duel snapped.

Luckily, before Ollie could blow a gasket, an african american boy and girl came into the room along side the hispanic from earlier. Following them came-

"Canary!" Ollie darted to her side and spun her in a circle by her waist.

"See, I told you she would be fine!" Zatanna said. Exactly at that moment Robin gasped back into consciousness. He quickly assessed his position, confusedly looking up at Batman, wondering why the Dark Knight was holding him. In one fluid motion, Robin rolled out of Batman's arms and stood up, and brushed off dust from his shoulders. "And oh my! Both Blondie and X are awake and well! The miracle of magical medicine!" Zatanna laughed at their relieved faces.

"Yes, yes, how very humble of you Majeik." Robin said rolling his eyes. "Status." he ordered.

"All of us, save Static, are here and ready to chat." Zatanna replied. Robin paused and locked eyes with her, nodding to himself a second later.

"Good. So..." he spun slowly on his heel until he faced the heroes. he pointed at them and asked "Who are you all then?"

"Batman, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Flash, Zatara, Martian Manhunter, and Blondie." Zatanna listed off over Robin's shoulder, gesturing to each of them.

"That's not my name. My name is Black Canary." Dinah corrected. She and Ollie went to stand beside the other heroes.

"Really?" Zatanna asked. "You should get that changed. 'Blondie' suits you much better." she said with a wink.

None of the humor seemed to affect Robin however. He scowled at the team with a confused and worried expression. His gaze drifted to Orin. "Atlantian?" he asked. Orin nodded and Robin's frown deepened. He looked to J'onn. "Martian?" At J'onn's affirmation Robin gave a deep, long suffering sigh. "Well." He said pinching the bridge of his nose. "This is a bit confusing." he looked back up at the heros. "I think it's time that you start explaining what the hell is going on."

"You think?!" Green Arrow blew up. "I _know_ it's time you explain what the hell happened to you!"

Robin quirked an eyebrow but it was Zatanna who responded. "Umm?... What do you mean? He's acting just like he always does. Not that that should even mean anything to you since we've only just met today."

"Yes you have!" Green Arrow shouted, stepping up into Zatanna's face.

"No. We haven't. Now take a step back, arrow head, before I incinerate you where you stand."

"Arrow." "Majeik." Batman and Robin reprimanded.

The african american girl coughed to break the tension. All heads turned to her and she rolled her eyes. She was about 5'7" with brown eyes and matching brown pixie cut hair. Her suit was striped with yellow and had glowing yellow circles in the palms of her hands. She has yellow goggles that came to points on the sides of her head like antennae, and yellow bug wings on her back. Overall she looked like a wasp or yellowjacket or…

"Yes, Bumblebee?" Robin asked, grateful for the interruption.

"Permission to speak?" she requested.

"Granted."

Bumblebee took a breath before speaking. "Right now we seem to be arguing without any real point to argue for. We know what we know, and you know what you know. We'll never come to any conclusion unless we combine our knowledge."

Zatanna raised an eyebrow at Bumblebee. "Is that your way of telling me to shut up and get shit done?"

Bumblebee looked straight forward, not meeting anyone's eyes. "Yes, sir."

"Noted." Zatanna hmmed. "So, why are you under the misconception-" Duel coughed to keep Zatanna from pissing anyone off. "Fine." she huffed. "Why do you believe that i should know you?"

Zatara stepped forward. "Because you're my daughter."

The teenagers froze and stared at him. Zatanna blinked back to herself and deadpanned "Riveting, pull the other one." She suddenly twitched back into life once more. With an inquisitive expression she jumped off the table she was leaning on and hovered in a circle around Zatara, getting a good look at him from all angles. "I suppose that does explain why we look alike and why your magic resembles mine."

"It does?" The african american asked.

"Of course." Zatanna replied with a wave of her hand. "I wouldn't expect anyone else to notice, so don't feel bad Vox, our magic doesn't look alike in any physical sense but I can sense the connection. His is closely related to mine if not identical to my father's."

"Wha- Zatanna! I am your father." Zatara exclaimed.

"Not my name!" she rolled her eyes and motioned Robin over to her. He waved his hand over his holo-watch. "I'm sorry to tell you this, Zatara, I believe your name was, but…" Robin held up his watch, displaying an image of a younger and far more grittier version of Zatara who was labeled as Mage and later down the screen, deceased. Zatanna continued on "My father died twelve years ago when i was 4. You're not him." she said clearly, giving Zatara a hard and unsympathetic look.

_End Of Chapter_

still unbetaed/omg help me. i know my schedule is crazy and stupid and i can't seem to keep a steady update apporximination, but i can tell you that i finished that i finished writing chapter 7 i just haven't typed it up/ spell checked it. though i usually don't like to update a chapter until i have the next chapter written up i might make an effort so just stay posted. I highly suggest constructive criticism since i have no idea what i'm doing

No flames, love you all, enjoy reading- Magenta Scribe


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